Areas We Serve
Restaurant Accountants in Austin, TX
Austin is one of the fastest-growing restaurant markets in the country. We keep local operators' books clean, compliant and profitable — with real knowledge of Texas sales tax, mixed-beverage rules and the labor math that generalists get wrong.
FORCS provides restaurant accounting in Austin — handling the city's 8.25% combined sales tax, Texas mixed-beverage taxes for bars and alcohol service, and the federal tip-credit rules that govern payroll in a no-income-tax state — for restaurants, food trailers and multi-unit groups from Downtown to The Domain, alongside bookkeeping, payroll and hands-on operations support.
Why Austin, TX restaurants come to FORCS
Austin is booming, and its food scene reflects it — a nationally famous food-truck and trailer culture, a wave of chef-driven brick-and-mortar concepts, and multi-unit groups expanding fast across a metro that keeps adding people. Events like SXSW in March and ACL in October slam popular rooms with demand for days at a time, then it goes quiet. That kind of swing rewards operators who watch prime cost and cash flow closely, whether you run a single trailer on South Congress or a growing group across the city.
Sales tax & local filings in TX
Austin charges a combined 8.25% sales tax on prepared food and restaurant meals — 6.25% Texas state plus 2% in local city and transit taxes. If you serve liquor, wine or beer by the drink, Texas layers on its mixed-beverage taxes: a 6.7% mixed-beverage gross receipts tax the permittee owes directly (it can't be passed to the guest as a line item) plus an 8.25% mixed-beverage sales tax — a combined 14.95% that bars and full-service restaurants routinely account for incorrectly. We file your sales tax reconciled to your POS and keep your mixed-beverage reporting clean.
Labor & tip rules where you operate
Texas follows the federal minimum wage of $7.25 and the federal tipped-wage rules — a $2.13 cash wage with a tip credit of up to $5.12, as long as tips bring staff to $7.25. That's a very different world from New York or California, but the tip-credit math still has to be right every pay period, and Texas has no state income tax, which changes how payroll and withholding are set up. We handle the tipped-payroll calculations and the Texas-specific setup so nothing slips.
We keep the books for multi-unit restaurant operators, so Austin's sales tax, mixed-beverage rules and tipped-payroll math aren't theory to us — they're what we handle every week.
Restaurant accounting built for a fast-growing market
Austin doesn’t have New York’s rents, but it has its own pressures: explosive growth, event-driven revenue swings, and a tax picture — 8.25% sales tax plus Texas mixed-beverage taxes on every drink poured — that catches operators who treat accounting as an afterthought. When you’re scaling from one location to three, or one trailer to a fleet, loose books are what stall the growth.
FORCS is a restaurant accounting firm built for Austin operators, from South Congress trailers to full-service groups across Downtown, East Austin and The Domain. We keep GAAP-compliant books, reconcile every dollar of POS sales against your deposits, and file your sales tax and payroll with Texas rules — including mixed-beverage taxes — built in. Just as important, we bring operations support: inventory, recipe costing and item-level mapping, so you hold food and labor cost steady through SXSW spikes and the slow weeks between.
Whether you run a single room on Rainey Street or a group expanding across the metro, we help Austin restaurants keep more of what a booming market brings in.
Neighborhoods & areas we serve
- Downtown
- South Congress (SoCo)
- East Austin
- Rainey Street
- The Domain
- Zilker
- South Lamar
- Mueller
- Round Rock
- Cedar Park
- Barton Springs
- North Loop
Services in Austin, TX
Restaurant accounting services in Austin, TX
Accounting in Austin
GAAP-compliant monthly financials and P&L by location you can actually use.
Learn moreBookkeeping in Austin
Clean, POS-integrated books, reconciled and delivered on time every period.
Learn morePayroll & Tax in Austin
Tip-compliant payroll, sales tax and clean year-end prep for your CPA.
Learn more Our DifferenceOperations
Inventory, recipes and item-level mapping most accountants simply cannot do.
Learn moreConsulting
Fractional-CFO guidance on growth, financing and unit-level performance.
Learn moreAutomations
Vendor, POS and accounting integrations that kill manual data entry.
Learn moreMore than accounting
The operations support Austin, TX operators can't get from a CPA
Beyond clean books, we go inside your Austin, TX restaurant: inventory review, recipe costing and item-level mapping in your accounting software. It's how you control prime cost — not just report it after the month closes.
Explore operations supportRestaurant accounting in Austin, TX — FAQs
What sales tax do Austin restaurants charge on meals?
Prepared food and restaurant meals in Austin are taxed at a combined 8.25% — 6.25% Texas state plus 2% in local city and transit taxes. We prepare and file this reconciled to your POS sales so filings are accurate and on time.
How do Texas mixed-beverage taxes work for my bar or restaurant?
If you serve alcohol by the drink, Texas charges a 6.7% mixed-beverage gross receipts tax that you owe directly and can't add to the guest's check, plus an 8.25% mixed-beverage sales tax — 14.95% combined. We track and file both correctly so alcohol sales don't become a liability.
What is the tipped minimum wage in Austin?
Texas follows the federal rules: a $2.13 cash wage plus a tip credit of up to $5.12, as long as tips bring staff to the $7.25 minimum. We handle the cash-wage-plus-tip-credit calculation correctly every payroll and set up withholding for a no-state-income-tax state.
Do you work with food trucks and trailers, not just brick-and-mortar?
Yes. Austin's trailer scene is a huge part of the market, and we handle mobile operators the same way we handle full-service rooms — sales tax, tipped payroll and clean books — whether you run one trailer or a growing multi-unit group.
Ready to Increase Profit and Take Control of Your Business?
Let's build a stronger, more profitable restaurant — together.